Dionysus: Encyclopedia II - Dionysus - Other stories

Dionysus - Other stories

• Primordial gods and Titans
• Zeus and the Olympians
• Pan and the nymphs
• Apollo and Dionysus
• Sea-gods and Earth-gods

• Heracles and his Labors
• Achilles and the Trojan War
• Odysseus and the Odyssey
• Jason and the Argonauts
• Perseus and the Gorgon
• Oedipus and Thebes
• Theseus and the Minotaur
• Triptolemus and the
  Eleusinian Mysteries

• Satyrs, centaurs and dragons
• Ancient Greek religion

When Hephaestus bound Hera to a magical chair, Dionysus got him drunk and brought him back to Olympus after he had passed out. For this act, he was made one of the twelve Olympians.

Acis, a Sicilian youth, was sometimes said to be Bacchus' son. A satyr named Ampelos was a good friend of Bacchus.

Callirhoe was a Calydonian woman who scorned a priest of Dionysus who threatened to inflict all the women of Calydon with insanity (see Maenad). The priest was ordered to sacrifice Callirhoe but he killed himself instead. Callirhoe threw herself into a well which was later named after her.

As Dionysus was almost certainly a late addition to the pantheon of Greek mythology, there was some hostility to his worship. Homer mentions him only briefly and with much hostility. Euripides also wrote a tale concerning the destructive nature of Dionysus in his play entitled The Bacchae. Since Euripides wrote this play while in the court of King Archelaus of Macedon, some scholars believe that the cult of Dionysus was malicious in Macedon but benign in Athens. In the play, Dionysus returns to his birthplace, Thebes, ruled by his cousin, Pentheus. Pentheus was angry at the women of Thebes, including his mother, Agave, for denying his divinity and worshipping Dionysus against his will. The worshippers of Dionysus were known as blood-thirsty, wild women called Maenads. The women tore Pentheus to shreds after he was lured to the woods by Dionysus. His body was mutilated by Agave.

When King Lycurgus of Thrace heard that Dionysus was in his kingdom, he imprisoned all the followers of Dionysus, the Maenads. Dionysus fled, taking refuge with Thetis. Dionysus then sent a drought and the people revolted. Dionysus made King Lycurgus insane, and he sliced his own son into pieces with an axe, thinking he was a patch of ivy, a plant holy to Dionysus. An oracle then claimed that the land would stay dry and barren as long as Lycurgus was alive, so his people had him drawn and quartered. With Lycurgus dead, Dionysus lifted the curse.

Dionysus - Consorts/Children

1. Aphrodite
   1. Charites
      1. Aglaea
      2. Euphrosyne
      3. Thalia
   2. Hymenaios
   3. Priapus
2. Ariadne
   1. Oenopion
3. Nyx
   1. Phthonus
4. Unknown mother
   1. Acis

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Other stories", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki